“Since Dr. Gustafson joined BWFH as chief operating officer in 2011, the institution has undergone a remarkable transformation of key clinical programs, with tremendous growth in inpatient and outpatient volumes and improved financial stability,” said Nabel. “He has also demonstrated an intense commitment and passion for improving staff engagement, the environment of care, patient safety and quality outcomes, and the overall experience for patients and families. With these enhancements and an acceleration of clinical and administrative integration with the BWH campus, BWFH has been able to offer an impressive array of new and expanded programs for the community.”

Prior to becoming COO in 2011, Gustafson, a trained surgeon, served in senior leadership roles at BWH for more than a decade, most recently as senior vice president for clinical excellence. He founded and directed the BWHC Center for Clinical Excellence, which has been heralded as a national best practice for how to effectively organize and support improvement activities within a large academic center. He and his team also developed the BWHC Balance Scorecard in 2002, a hospital-wide performance management system that helps staff better understand variance and identify opportunities for improvement.

Gustafson is an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, with prior research interests including the relationships between volume and quality, measurement of risk-adjusted surgical outcomes and the application of human factors and systems engineering concepts in the operating room.

He completed his MD at West Virginia University, general surgery residency at BWH and a surgical research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital. He later received his MBA from Harvard Business School, one of the first surgeons ever to do so.